NEW FOR TUESDAY: OC Featured In New Three-Stop Dew Tour Model

OCEAN CITY — The resort will represent one-third of this year’s Dew Tour, as it transitions to the new “Beach, City, Mountain” model for 2012’s edition.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office">

Leveraging the resources of the NBC Sports Group, which acquired Alli Sports last year, the new Beach, City, Mountain tour model will better serve the needs of the athletes and action sports community. The three premium events will boast expanded television programming and digital strategy across NBC, NBC Sports Network, nbcsports.com and allisports.com, as well as hyper-local promotional and programming opportunities through the NBC Sports Group’s owned stations and regional sports networks.

At the event level, each stop will include expanded and new sports and disciplines, and an enhanced on-site experience featuring more live music and a new “Dew Tour Experience,” bringing all aspects of action sports culture to life throughout the five-day festivals.

“The action sports landscape has grown and changed dramatically since we launched the Dew Tour in 2005. The multi-stop series format was what the industry wanted and needed then. The Dew Tour changed the industry forever, taking the sports to a whole new level. The new Dew Tour, which will include three major events across Beach, City and Mountain venues, represents what the athletes and industry want and need today,” said Wade Martin, President & CEO, Alli Sports. “We believe our partnership with Mountain Dew represents one of the most unique, integrated relationships between brand and property in all of sports. This partnership extension and the new approach we created for the Dew Tour together with Mountain Dew, the athletes and the industry, truly underscores that.”

Mountain Dew Vice President of Marketing Brett O’Brien said the tweaks to the event are in direct response to what the athletes expressed they wanted to see.

“Dew Tour continues to work hand-in-hand with the athletes. They asked for a platform that would elevate their sports and we worked with Alli to deliver that,” said O’Brien “With the new Dew Tour, we are working to ensure that we evolve along with the action sports community. With input from the athletes, we’re developing a platform that answers their call for fewer, bigger, better events.”

Spanning the country August through December, the 2012 Dew Tour schedule will include returns to Ocean City and Breckenridge Ski Resort, with a debut event in San Francisco on the West coast. The Dew Tour will integrate the character of each stop into the overall feel of the event, capitalizing on impactful Beach, City and Mountain backdrops as each of the three events will draw inspiration from the host city to create its own identity.

The Ocean City stop will be Aug. 16-19 followed by San Francisco Oct. 18-21 and Breckenridge, Colo. Dec. 13-16.

The 2012 Dew Tour will include over 30 hours of live television coverage on NBC and NBC Sports Network. In addition, the Dew Tour will present an expanded digital offering including live competitions and behind-the-scenes exclusive content across multiple platforms. In addition, all broadcast hours will be distributed live internationally across Alli’s extensive network of distribution partners.

“The NBC Sports Group is excited about the new model of the Dew Tour,” said Rob Simmelkjaer, SVP, NBC Sports Ventures and International. “This new approach is consistent with our ‘big event strategy’ and will allow us to leverage the powerful resources we have across broadcast, cable and digital. From all angles – programming, promotion, production and scheduling – the new Dew Tour fits incredibly well into the NBC Sports Group.”

Utilizing the athletes as the drivers of the Tour, each of the three stops will present a different mix of sports and disciplines. Over the past six months, Alli Sports and Mountain Dew have held panels with athletes, agents and industry veterans to determine the best way to progress the sports and elevate sports’ stars and the competitions. Open communication led to the development of the new model of the Dew Tour, as participants expressed their ideal courses, disciplines, formats and overall event authenticity.

“I think it’s cool that Alli and Mountain Dew held panels this year for all of the competitors so we can share our input on the event. Bringing the events to venues that have such a strong history in skate will step up the level of competition, and I’m looking forward to seeing it all come together,” said athlete Paul Rodriguez.

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